Urdu Forum Tutorials

[Maxilocks]

Welcome to the first ever Urdu Forum Tutorial. This is a simple and very easy tutorial that will teach you how to use Urdu alphabets, and other characters, on your Computer.

To be able to use Urdu Fonts on your computer, you will need one of the following softwares:

+ Urdu Inpage
+ Urdu Nigar
+ Urdu ActiveX

I personally recommend Urdu Inpage – It is, by far, the most easy to use, and comes with plenty of extraordinary, user-friendly, additional features. That is why, apart from guiding users about the Urdu Phonetic Keyboard – That is, how to write specific Urdu alphabet, and characters – this Tutorial also focuses on how to properly use Urdu Inpage to your advantage.

To begin using Urdu Inpage, open it [After installation, of course] and then scroll up to the top left corner. Click File in the Menu Bar [Shortcut Key: Alt + F]. Select New [Shortcut Key: Ctrl + N].

A Dialogue Box concerning the New Page will now appear. You may set the Page Settings [Width, Length, number of columns needed on the Page, and so on] through this, or you may use the highly recommended Standard settings by simply clicking Ok, or pressing Enter, and skipping the Page Settings.

Urdu Inpage comes with a number of other features that most other Urdu Softwares do not have – You may draw, as well as edit images, through it. However, this tutorial will only focus on how to use Urdu Inpage to write Urdu.

Once a new Page has been opened, a Tool Bar will be available on the left hand of the screen, containing different tools. Choose the Hand tool. Use your Mouse to move the Hand to where you want to write. Press the Left Mouse Button and drag the Hand. This will create a square, or rectangle, depending on where you move the Hand to. Once you have drawn a square or rectangle, as large as you would like the Writing Area to be, let go of the Left Mouse Button.

Click inside the Rectangle [Or Square]. Now you may use your Keyboard to write in Urdu.

Here is the standard layout of Urdu Phonetic Keyboard that is used in most of the applications. Most Urdu softwares – including Urdu ActiveX Control and Urdu Nigar – use it. Hopefully, with a little practise, users will find it very uncomplicated and easy to use.





As there are more letters in the Urdu Alphabet than there are in the English, it would be quite impossible to fit them all in the Alphanumeric Keypad. Therefore, the letters that cannot be written using this Keypad can be made available by pressing the Caps Lock Key. With Caps Lock pressed, here is what the Keyboard Layout would look like.





Most other characters and symbols used in written Urdu can be made available by pressing the Shift Key. With the Shift Key pressed, here is what the Keyboard Layout would look like.





Have fun writing in Urdu. If you have any questions related to this Tutorial, feel free to ask them here.


Image Courtesy: Yahoo GeoCities